Neighborhood watch groups in need of volunteers

A new Neighborhood Watch program in the Town of Chevy Chase will hold training sessions for block captains by the start of next month, although the town and a nearby neighborhood in Bethesda are still short of their desired quotas for program members.

Neighborhood Watch uses communication between residents to keep track of changes or suspicious activities in communities through real-time communication such as e-mail. It also requires volunteers to undergo nine to 12 hours of training with Montgomery County Police before it can be officially sanctioned by law enforcement and signs can be placed in a neighborhood.

Thefts from automobiles have been cited has a major reason behind the push to start Neighborhood Watch by both the Town of Chevy Chase and the Maplewood neighborhood in Bethesda. These incidents appear to have decreased as the summer has waned.

From May 25 through June 23, there were approximately 140 thefts from autos in the 2nd District, which includes Bethesda and Chevy Chase, according to the latest available police statistics. From June 24 through July 21, there were approximately 130 thefts from autos in the 2nd District, and approximately 90 thefts from autos took place in the district from July 27 through Aug. 25.

These numbers include stolen vehicle parts but not vehicle tags.

Scott Egloff, the town's coordinator for Neighborhood Watch, said there are 23 residents committed to being block captains for the program. In April, Egloff said the goal was 30 block captains and that 20 people had agreed to be captains, but that a May meeting to try to boost membership should help the program reach its goal.

Egloff said despite the shortage in volunteers that prevailed over the summer, he thinks there will be sufficient volunteers by the last week September or the first week of October, when the town is attempting to schedule training with police, to get the program started.

"We feel very confident that we'll be able to recruit more volunteers and block captains," Egloff said.

Other nearby communities such as the Martin's Additions and Chevy Chase Village use e-mail and newsletters instead of Neighborhood Watch to keep residents informed about crime prevention and recent crime trends.

But the Maplewood neighborhood north of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda began a Neighborhood Watch program about four months ago. Frank Leibsly, the coordinator for Maplewood, said although there are currently 15 block captains and 15 more who need to be trained by police, he initially set a goal of one captain per 10 households in a neighborhood that has approximately 950 homes, leaving the program well short of his goal.

"Personally, I've had no trouble getting them. I walk around the neighborhood…the problem is that the other captains are sometimes a little bit shy going around," Leibsly said.

Leibsly said the Maplewood Neighborhood Watch group does not patrol but focuses on crime prevention inside homes and cars, not just watching out for suspicious activity.

He said the program has led to increased police presence in Maplewood because residents have been more active in calling in suspicious behavior.